


Points of View

by MaverickWerewolf



Series: May Fanfic Discord Challenge [2]
Category: Original Work, Wulfgard
Genre: And stuff., Gen, Mostly an exercise in differing POVs, Points of View, and some character moments, and there are old ruins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 01:24:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18862891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaverickWerewolf/pseuds/MaverickWerewolf
Summary: Kye, Caiden, and Tom poke around in some old ruins. Written for a prompt on differing points of view/narrators and how characters perceive the same situation differently, what they notice, etc.The POVs are Kye first, then Caiden.





	1. Kye

Kye had never seen anything like it. Then again, he’d never seen a lot of things in this world.

A high, vaulted ceiling reached far overhead, a big hole knocked in it letting sunlight spill through and filling the ruins with glowing golden shafts of light and hard shadows under some of the dilapidated rocks and rotten boards. Vines crept up along the walls, leafy and green, reaching up toward the sun like greedy tendrils.

But not like tendrils. Because those were gross. Kye had seen a lot in the Underworld, black and twisted, usually belonging to some kind of giant, disgusting entity that wanted to eat souls or something.

Some of these vines even had flowers, bright and red, long like trumpets. And in those shadows under some of the lopsided ruins scattered, heavy and enormous, around on the floor, animals scurried and hid as they entered.

Little things with long tails. They were tiny, fuzzy, and cute and they squeaked a lot in alarm. _Mice,_ Kye reminded himself. That was what Tom had told him once, anyway, if he was remembering it right. Except they were also ‘mouse.’ ‘Mice’ and ‘mouse’ that was very weird and confusing.

Kye let his eyes wander over the broad windows of stained glass, still intact, filtering the sun in through the many vibrant colors and striking the far wall in brilliant reds, blues, and yellows. Then there was the ground itself, covered in vines too, and with a few little wiry animal nests stuffed up in corners and crevices. Up near the ceiling, he saw more than one nest for those flying things.

The little flitty squeaky fluffy things that he adored. They were so brightly colored – most of them, anyway – and they always sounded so _happy_.

Someone stood right next to his shoulder. Kye hadn’t really paid any attention until his tail bumped into someone’s leg and then he heard Tom almost right in his ear.

“Birds,” he said in a quiet reminder. He sounded just a little amused in that way that Tom did with him. He didn’t mean it in a bad way, though – Kye knew that. He just wanted to help.

Kye nodded.

“Songbirds,” Tom clarified after a moment.

“What kind?” Kye said, glancing at Tom, whose sharp yellow eyes watched the little bluish bird flit around.

A very particular kind of grin pulled at one side of Tom’s mouth and he said after a second, “Blue tits.”

He said that like it was hilarious. Kye didn’t get it, so he screwed up his brow trying and rubbed at the back of his neck.

Okay, he’d ask.

“Is… Is that funny? Why’s it funny?”

All that got him was a laugh and a clap on the shoulder.

So while Tom turned back to the others and talked, saying something about castle architecture and that this was either some kind of great hall or temple or something, Kye started walking forward.

And then the floor fell from under his feet.

One second, he was walking there; the next second, the floor creaked, snapped, gave way, and Kye screamed. He had no time to even think about what had happened before he got a faceful of dust and dirt and _ground._ Which was hard and sent a shock of pain all the way to his bones, making him yelp – loudly.

He coughed, shook his head, and scrambled to his feet, looking around— imagining that he’d fallen into some kind of deep dark pit full of grotesque monstrosities that’d already be trying to pull his arms off or something—

_Oh._ It was just – dark. And dusty and old. Some kind of cellar or dungeon, maybe. Kye couldn’t see much, it was so dark, but all the dust from the collapsed wood made him sneeze before he could even panic out loud.

“Bless you,” Tom called down from where he crouched over the hole Kye had fallen into. “Actually… Wait, would that be bad, if I blessed you?”

“I— I don’t— get me outta here!” Kye called back.

Up there on the edge of the pit, Tom tilted his head. “Kye, buddy,” he said, “you’ve got wings.”

_Oh._ That would work.

Kye scratched his head, got a cloud of dust out of his hair for it, and then spread the great, demonic, bat-like wings on his back. Hunkering low, he gave the wings one buffet and leapt, tucking them close in around him as he soared straight up into the air and fit through that hole again – his wings catching the edges of the wood, splintering it. Which hurt a little, but it was okay.

He landed up in the ruins again with everyone else, all of them glancing over to him when he reappeared from the collapsed floor. Caiden was walking around with his crossbow in his hands like he expected something to jump out and attack them. Most of the others didn’t seem to agree, since they didn’t have their weapons out.

Tom, though, looked tense. Kye knew what happened when Tom looked tense: one of a few things, none of them very good.

So Kye straightened up, his eyes on Tom, and felt his heart start to race again.

“What’s wrong?” Kye said, watching him. But Tom wasn’t looking at him; he had his eyes on the room, darting everywhere, while he gave the air another sniff.

“Tom—”

Tom held up a finger. Kye knew that was his nice way of asking him to please shut up. Kye quietly snapped his jaws shut and drew his wings in close, inching more toward Tom and away from the floor that’d given out on him.

Something moved. Kye heard it too this time.

A shape rose up from a shadowy mountain of thick vines up near one corner of the ruins. Kye couldn’t tell what it was, but it had something heavy in one hand, it looked humanoid, and it ran straight at the nearest person with that thing in its hand raised over its head.

The nearest person was Caiden, who barely took a moment to pivot, raise his crossbow, and shoot.

A bolt hit the thing in the head with a solid thud, right in the front of its skull – between its eyes, Kye thought, because he’d seen Caiden shoot things there before. Not that Kye was sure whatever that was had even had eyes.

The thing went down abruptly and in a heap. Caiden’s crossbow clicked as the mechanism reloaded itself almost instantly.

“Wow,” Kye said.


	2. Caiden

The ruins were old. Run-down, smelling of rot and the greenery trying to take over the old stonework, which told a few stories about its age. Open, high ceiling overhead, but with a hole spilling sunlight in to the room. Enough to see by, but not enough to touch every single shadow. Just enough to harden their edges, make anything hiding there tighten its stance in defense.

And there _were_ things hiding there. Caiden could feel it.

Cracks in the walls and a few piles of stones offered too many places for something to be watching. Collapsed portions of the walls or the ceiling, overturned statues… All of them offering shelter to the various creatures that scurried away at their approach. Mice, mostly. All very confused. They didn’t have to squeak as loudly as they did for Caiden to know that.

There were birds, too. Kicking up a fuss and distracting Kye, who stood behind him and stared up at them while Tom said something over his shoulder. Caiden didn’t listen. Crossbow in hand, he kept walking forward, eye sweeping over those crevices again. He knew perfectly well they didn’t have to be large enough to hide a man for them to hold something dangerous.

He paid too much attention to those shadows. Not enough to his feet – and the floor went out under him.

It barely creaked before his boots went straight through, one after the other, the boards splitting in an instant and dropping him down into dust and darkness.

Should’ve thought about that before, to be walking in ruins. Rookie mistake.

His reflexes saved him, made him curl a shoulder forward and duck his head low, landing in a reasonably neat – if heavy – roll before straightening up in a hurry, crossbow still in hand and already lifted as he scanned what little the light touched around him.

Nothing. Only more empty shadows and enough dust to make him huff and scratch his nose with the back of his arm. This was a cellar, maybe, or even some kind of dungeon. It didn’t look like anyone had been down here for a long time.

He didn’t sense anything, either; nothing but some alarm as a few shapes appeared around the hole he’d left in the floor. All familiar souls, except what he guessed were the mice and birds.

Caiden rose to his feet and lowered his weapon, turning to look up at those around the hole and seeing Tom looking down at him.

“We’re gonna need a crane to get you out of there,” Tom said, crouching and tilting his head.

Caiden grunted. Scanned the surroundings for any kind of easy handholds or way to turn the rubble into something he could scale, but he didn’t see much. Nothing that’d hold up, anyway.

Strapping the crossbow to his back again, he stood directly underneath where Tom crouched and gauged the distance. It wasn’t far. That got Tom to put on a frown.

“Anybody ever tell you you’re way too freaking tall, Caid?”

“Mostly you.”

Tom squinted at him. Caiden shrugged one shoulder.

Then he prompted, “Give me a hand.”

“You calling me a crane?”

But Tom hunkered a little lower and reached a hand down. Caiden barely had to jump to clasp Tom around the wrist, hanging with his boots brushing the ground as Tom grunted, grimaced, and slowly started hauling him up.

“Gods, it’s like trying to lift a _house_ —”

Caiden could reach the edge now, so he grabbed on with his free hand – ignoring the splinters, mostly soft from rot, that prodded at his fingers – and helped pull himself up. When he could stand again, Tom kept a hold on his wrist and stared at him. A few inches up.

“ _Way_ ,” he said, “too tall.”

“I’ve heard.”

Tom paused then, tensing visibly, bristling inward and outward, a heat kicking up in him as he stared through Caiden. He gave the air a sniff, eyes searching everywhere for something.

Caiden turned and looked around with him, feeling something else flare. Anger, but he wasn’t sure from what. Something deep and old, a rekindled fire that’d gone too long without fuel.

It moved.

Rounding on the sound and reaching for his crossbow again, Caiden turned to see a shape rise up from a hive of dark, twisted vines in a far corner. Humanoid, but not human, with pits of shadow for eyes and a body made of leaf and bark. One arm ended in a shape only vaguely like a hand that held a cudgel, but seemed to be formed into its body.

The creature charged at the nearest target: Kye. He made for an easy target, as he’d been standing there staring up at a bird.

Kye went down with a startled yell and fell into a tangle of limbs with the monster, one of his wings beating at the air in a panic and stirring up choking clouds of dust, scattering all the birds he’d just been watching.

Tom and Caiden moved in an instant, wheeling around to face the creature. Caiden leveled his crossbow, but Tom charged straight past him, into the bolt’s path, and tackled the monster headlong.

“Dammit, Tom—”

They were gone. There wasn’t much good talking to Tom when he was busy running a gladius through the monster Caiden still hadn’t managed to identify. Some kind of forest spirit, maybe – didn’t matter now. Maybe it’d been corrupted. Or maybe it’d seen Kye was a demon and saw him as a threat…

Either way, Caiden stopped by Kye, who lay there flat on his back, eyes wide and making the air thrum with shock and fear.

“Need a hand?” Caiden said, offering one. Kye made an odd little noise and took it, pulling himself up, tail waving everywhere behind him.

A few feet away, Tom let out a roar as he finished hacking the unknown creature to pieces, greenish blood – or what Caiden assumed to be something like blood – spattering onto him and everything else. Going a little pale, Kye turned to Caiden like he had some kind of answers.

Caiden huffed. “Are you still surprised at this point?”


End file.
